Scary Old Sex

About this book

The acclaimed debut collection of short stories by practicing psychiatrist Arlene Heyman--a work of bliss that lifts right off the page. (Dwight Garner NYT) A woman goes about certain rituals of sex with her second husband sharing the bed with the ghosts of her sexual past. A beautiful young art student embarks on an affair with a much older married famous artist. A middle-aged woman struggles with the decline of her mother once glamorous and still commanding; their fraught relationship causes unexpected feelings both shaming and brutal. A man finds that his father has died while in the midst of extra-marital sex and wonders what he should do with the body. And a boy sits in his Calculus class fantasizing about a schoolmates breasts and worrying about his father lying in hospital as outside his classroom window the Twin Towers begin to fall. In this stunning taboo-breaking debut Arlene Heyman a practicing psychiatrist gives us what really goes on in peoples minds relationships and beds. Raw tender funny truthful and often shocking Scary Old Sex is a fierce exploration of the chaos and beauty of life.